By: Dave Abrahams
Munich, Germany - To mark its centenary, BMW has looked further ahead than usual to create a concept it calls Vision Next 100.
It's not only a look into the future of what can be done (as Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW group design, puts it: “If you can imagine something, there's a good chance it will one day become reality.”) but also an attempt to meet head-on the biggest challenge facing performance carmakers.
Van Hooydonk admits that fully autonomous driving is not a matter of 'if' but a matter of 'when'. In the not-too-distant future, he says, most vehicles will probably be completely self-driving - people will get around in robots on wheels.
So where does that leave BMW, a brand built on 'Sheer Driving Pleasure'?
Looking back and forward as BMW turns 100
Technology, reasons Van Hooydonk, should be as intuitive as possible, so that the co-operation between car and driver becomes completely seamless. Future cars will be so completely connected that the physical and digital worlds will merge; as voice command and gesture recognition improve they will replace touchscreens the way remotes have replaced getting up to change stations on your TV.
Artificial intelligence will learn from us, working away in the background to do the jobs we delegate - while we still get to do the fun stuff.
INTELLIGENT 4D CONSTRUCTION
The move away from assembling cars out of thousands of metal and plastic components has already begun, as increasing numbers of cars come to market with one-piece carbon fibre tubs in place of welded-up metal body shells. New methods such as 4D printing could soon replace conventional tooling to produce 'intelligent', networked materials.
Here's one example: today's cars have an inner door panel with complex door latches, locks, window controls and their associated wiring added on. Now imagine printing a one-piece door panel with touch-sensitive pads and conductive paths built right in - the possibilities are endless.
The Vision Next 100 concept was designed from the inside out, based on the premise that BMW customers will still want to do most of the driving themselves. The interior of the concept is trimmed primarily with fabrics made from recycled or renewable material; there's no wood or leather and the carbon components are made using off-cuts from normal carbon-fibre production.
FOCUSED ON DRIVER
As you walk towards the car, it recognises you (or the key fob in your pocket!) and opens the doors. The steering wheel is flush with the dashboard to give you more space to get in and out; once you're in, you tap the BMW logo in the middle of the dashboard and the car switches on.
The doors close, the displays come alive, the steering wheel rises to meet your hands in much the same away as the rotary gear selector on current Jaguar models does - and you're good to go.
The cabin morphs almost seamlessly from Boost mode, where everything is focused on the driver, to Ease mode, where the driver sits back and lets the car take over, and the cabin becomes a quiet retreat with pleasant lighting and a comfortable ambience.
THE CAR GETS TO KNOW YOU
All the time, the car is learning about the driver, thanks to a digital intelligence BMW calls the Companion, which already exists in rudimentary form. It's symbolised by a sculptural element shaped like a large, cut gemstone in the middle of the dashboard.
In Boost mode it stays flush with the dashboard, but in Ease mode it rises up to form an interface with the windscreen, with a signal light to tell the driver that the car is ready for fully autonomous driving.
It also tells other road users that the car is in autonomous mode by changing the colour of the grille, double headlights and L-shaped tail-lights, and even shows pedestrians when it's safe to cross the road by flashing a green light gradient across the front of the car.
There are no screens; the entire windscreen is a head-up display. In Boost mode, it displays what really matters to the driver: the ideal line, turning point and speed. Sensors and navigation data allow the display to generate a digital image of the car's surroundings - so that in foggy conditions, for example, you see vehicles crossing ahead, before they actually come into sight.
By learning more and more about the driver, the system continuously improves, tailoring his interaction with the car to his driving style.
In Ease mode the steering wheel and centre console retract, the head restraints move to one side, and the seats and door panels merge, the driver and passengers to sit at a slight angle, half-facing each other for more relaxed chatting, while the head-up display shows the information and entertainment they want.
ALIVE GEOMETRY
This is by far the most striking element of the concept, consisting of almost 800 triangles set into the dashboard and some parts of the side panels. They can move in three dimensions, communicating directly with the driver through their movements, which are more like gestures than images on a display.
The effect is a lot like that of a flock of birds in flight, as their coordinated movements convey intuitive non-verbal signals to the driver.
In Boost, when you're concentrating on the road, Alive Geometry highlights the ideal driving line or possible turning point and warns of oncoming vehicles. In Ease mode, on the other hand, it's more discreet in its movements, informing you and your passengers about the roads ahead and any acceleration and braking manoeuvres that are about to happen.
And by sliding towards and away from each other, the triangles act like the scales on an armadillo; as the front wheels are steered the bodywork keeps them covered like a flexible skin, which gives the Vision Next 100 a drag coefficient of just 0.18.